Rise of the Tomb Raider

After all, you are a Croft

Like its predecessors, Rise of the Tomb Raider is enjoyed thanks to its universe imbued with a light dose of science fiction (and very fun), featuring the hunt for an artifact that offers eternal life. It's vast, with an air of Indiana Jones galloping to the top of a ridge, in completely crazy, thrilling streaks. Basically, Rise of the Tomb Raider is about Lara and her late father, and actress Alice David's performance as Lara tells us about the complicated relationship between her and the ghosts of the past that her ancestor has. left behind.

Minute after minute, Lara shines. She is confident and intelligent, and reacts to danger with the calm and intuition of a great action hero. Since she is still marked by her previous adventure, she conveys a kind of disillusioned nonchalance that sprinkles her witty remarks with self-mockery. Let's be clear, as a character Lara Croft has never looked so endearing.

Its ambitions are also more complex. This time, it is the obsession that made him move forward, not survival, and for the first time, we find it more nuanced. Unlike the 2013 Tomb Raider, I didn't flinch every time she hurt herself - she's a really good fighter now, dealing more damage than she takes - but I could see the flaws nonetheless. in his mind.

The supporting roles in Rise of the Tomb Raider are less developed, but luckily they are much less visible on screen than Lara's antagonists. Talking about these two, and the mysterious organization that goes with them, in great detail might spoil a few big story twists, but they are morally grotesque adversaries, and the clash of their cravings will effect certain moments. of gloomy darkness.

Tools of the Tomb

Lara has new means of movement: a reel of rope allows her to attach to hooks to move in heights and arrows to move on vertical walls. These new items can be used in quick chains so she can stay aloft even longer. Rise of the Tomb Raider's most breathtaking moments come from the frantic, acrobatic chases where I fumbled for the right button hundreds of yards off the ground.

Rope arrows are used a lot more too, and the puzzles that benefit from them cover a remarkable range. One of them made me destroy a statue, another made me balance my weight gently and delicately on a platform. A few left me dangling on the end of a rope, with no idea what to do next, until that moment of relief when I found another place to tie myself up.

My only criticism of Rise of the Tomb Raider is that there aren't more puzzles. As I followed the main story, I found myself more and more trying to avoid the fight scenes so that I could take my next dose of puzzles, buried in the bowels of a frozen mountain or below. a muddy lake.

Lara's revenge

However, fighting is not a chore. Although the third-person shooter moments are the least inspired moments in the game, Lara can now craft nail bombs, smoke bombs, Molotov cocktails, and special ammo that while in the air , can turn a classic shot into a pile of corpses. These are fun and vicious new abilities, if a little silly, but they add a lot of diversity to encounters with enemies.

On the other hand, this makes the stealth approaches that made Rise of the Tomb Raider so successful very redundant. While you get bonus XP every time you stealthily take down an opponent, and get to hide in trees and bushes, Lara is such a strong fighter that I found no point in avoiding. the confrontations. It was much more enjoyable to do as much damage as possible and gain bonuses from headshots or kills and item combinations created by Lara.

It is possible to improve the weapons thanks to parts to find in the universe, which, in addition, regularly injects novelty in the fights. As in the previous game, I found myself alternating between the shotgun and the bow: the former for its incendiary bullets and the latter for its long-range poison arrows. Lara is as strong as the Terminator at the end of Rise of the Tomb Raider (on standard difficulty) which is something to consider when choosing the difficulty level.

Continue looting

There is plenty to explore, outside of the main story, and the semi-open universe of Rise of the Tomb Raider makes you want to seek it out. Beautiful views have always been the hallmark of the franchise, and huge snow-capped mountains, crumbling tombs, and gloomy forests have been brought to life with a lot of imagination. A dark corner of a tomb could well house a batch of skeletons, forced to pray at the feet of a statue for eternity. Turn left into a forest and you might stumble upon a crypt, or pass the side of a mountain and you might come face to face with a stone head of a forgotten god of an ancient race. It's a whole meticulously crafted set.

It's also not purely an exploration-driven game. Aside from the previously mentioned graves, there are characters that give you missions, which you can return to for new jobs in exchange for currency, outfits, XP, and area-specific challenges that offer rewards for the job. 'exploration. For game completion purists, there are a whole bunch of relics, documents, murals, and caves to explore, which can push the 15-hour campaign average easily to 30 or 40 in all.

Rise of the Tomb Raider delivers extra playtime through Expedition Mode, which replaces the redundant multiplayer mode of 2013, with a fun-enough way to compete against your friends on challenges that you can customize using cards to collect. Modifiers can make you weaker (single life) or stronger (killing while stealth provides temporary invisibility), and a timer determines who is better.

Although I will not recommend paying to have these cards with real money, it is an available option. I was able to earn enough credits throughout the campaign to be able to buy a few packs that made me laugh. The “Big Head” mode, for example, coupled with a map that burns enemies after being attacked in melee is my favorite combo.

The basic game, first of all. As already said, it is in my opinion one of the best games of 2015, as evidenced by my very personal Top 10 of last year. This is because, as you can also read in the accurate review by Mattia, relating to the Xbox One version, it clearly resumes the basic characteristics of the 2013 Tomb Raider, absolutely convincing in terms of its game structure, gameplay and technical construction. Without upsetting anything, but by refining everything and adding quantity and a little more interesting dressing. An abundant and satisfying sequel to a game that is already absolutely solid in itself.

All this part, which I had already happily enjoyed on Xbox One, is reported flawlessly on PS4, where the Foundation graphics engine, created by Crystal Dynamics itself, is completely at ease.

Result? Rise of the Tomb Raider is above all “aged” very well. Starting it again after a year on PS4, after finishing it on Xbox One, was very pleasant. I deserve first of all a very particular mixture, which in my opinion works better in RotTR than in many other games. I try to explain to you what I mean.

We have often talked about how open world games differ from more linear ones in the type of entertainment offered. On the one hand the freedom of action and movement, on the other an engaging story that you can't wait to live in one breath. Let's take a game from the The Elder Scrolls series, for example. He certainly has so much exploration to offer, but the main plot often gets confused in the thousands of other quests and activities to complete. An Uncharted, on the other hand, keeps you glued to the screen from the beginning to the end of the game, but it certainly has less to offer in terms of the sensation of exploring in total freedom. Here, Rise of the Tomb Raider (as its predecessor already did in large part) manages to guarantee a decidedly high quality in both sectors. The main plot (I am not referring so much to the story told, as to the sequence of game moments that constitute it) involves and amuses and is absolutely playable in one breath. The calmer player, however, can truly get lost in a flood of additional elements to explore and play (the secret tombs, real levels to understand and complete, are really fantastic in this sense).

Probably the title Crystal Dynamics will not be the best action and adventure game ever, just as it is not even the most desirable open world game, but in putting these two philosophies together it is, in my opinion, something truly unique. It involves you as a story-driven adventure, but at the same time it catches you with its many things to do. This is also due to a fairly substantial part of the character's development, which also manages to guarantee a remarkable sense of progress. All these elements together give a great video game satisfaction and make Rise of the Tomb Raider a great product as a whole.

In short, to close on the main campaign: it was very tasty a year ago on Xbox One and it is the same still today on PS4. Excellent graphics, very good gameplay, abundant longevity. We could also stop here. Even just for its main part, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a game that all adventurers can't miss.